In 2011, Kurt Swinghammer was invited by the nascent National Music Centre in Calgary, Alberta, to be its first artist-in-residence. (Others since invited: Daniel Lanois, Kid Koala, Timber Timbre, Money Mark.) This meant access to the wealth of early synthesizers in the museum’s collection. He wrote a song cycle about his mother, and used Another Green World as a reference point—studying the sounds and the song structures but not at all wanting to emulate it directly. “The narrative gave it an emotional access point,” says Swinghammer, “so that it’s not just an egghead project.” ‘Another Another’ is an act of engagement and interpretation not unlike the way Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville inverts the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street: an homage filtered through a personal lens, a reflection and a reinterpretation of a work that still resonates today—and sometimes in ways we might never expect.
New album ‘Another Another’ will be released on May 12th.
“I turned on the TV one morning to see CBC News anchor Peter Mansbridge with tears in his eyes announcing the death of Jack Layton, the charismatic leader of Canada’s left wing New Democratic Party. It was a sad start to a new day, but then later that afternoon my mom died. These two people were very important to me for entirely different reasons, and as often is the case with significant personal experiences, it inspired me to write. It became the first piece that developed into a song cycle called Another Another.” – Kurt Swinghammer